Saturday, August 30, 2008

But I will be back in a week!Heading out into the wild, to no electricity, people, running water. To a land of outhouses, bald eagles, grayling, bears, blueberries, caribou, freshest air ever and no light pollution, lynx, salmon, grayjays, lake trout, wind, water and big open skies. Where everything is harder but more peacful.I will be bringing some of my homebrew beers and a few from D Rock (sent them up from Colorado) to enjoy as well as a few of the last Sweet Eddies, blueberry bock, Jamaica Mon and German Hef. I will drink one while fishing for beautifully colored graylings, while floating around on the lake hoping to catch a lake trout as big as my arm, while picking blueberries, after hiking though tundra following caribou and while relaxing in the evening watching the sunset and feeling the cool biting autumn air and a final beer while waiting on the beach for the bush float plane to pick us up and carry us back to civilization. I won't return to the cabin again until the middle of winter when the world is white and temps get down to forty below zero.

Here the label I made for my Blueberry BockAnd the finished product! Pretty good, very mild blueberry flavor in there somewhere

Life is good at the cabin.

Riding to work is soon going to be finished. It's getting dark in the mornings, not to mention cold...oh yeah, it's been cold every morning every day this summer.

Still working on home repairs, no kitchen yet but sheetrock is going back up!!!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Beer Heaven! Christmas came early! Contents of the care package sent by brewing buddy D Rock from Colorado. None of these beers are available in Alaska, so this is very special. He even included 2 of his own brews, Granny Gear Pale Ale and Agave Whisperer Wit. I have these hidden away in my bike shop fridge. The Lost Boys had better STAY AWAY FROM MY BEER! I think I will lock the shop up.

I will be rationing these, one beer at at time. Where do I start first???? I am intreged by the Agave Whisperer Wit. Maybe that will be the starting point.

We have ripped out our kitchen, dining and living room. We live in a barn, these area's were the grain bins once upon a time. None of our floors are level, they sloped down so the grain would go down the 4 shutes. We finished building and sold the Big Lake house and I *finally* get to have some remodeling and refurbishing done. I ordered cabinets the other day. I'm so stoked, barns have no closets so we have been very creative over the years when it comes to storage. When this is finished up, I will have a pantry and plenty of cabinet space for all my junk. It will really be nice to have a place to put everything. I had NO IDEA how expensive cabinets were. Mindblowing. But I found some that I like which won't break the bank.

In the meantime, I have no kitchen,stove, oven, sink, dining table, etc. We have a temp living room in the hallway. We moved the fridge and microwave downstairs. Using paper plates and not cooking anything except on the grill, microwave and crock pot. So far so good, but I miss a sink with running water.

Riding is finished, except commuting to work, until this is finished up. All spare time is being put into this place. The weather continues to be very hit or miss, mostly miss. This summer is a loss.

We are heading out to our cabin the 1st week of Sept. Still issues with flying out game on the bush plane. Still the stupid law that won't allow game to be brought out on anything which weighs over 1500 lbs. This allows only 4-wheeler to get the game out. Which is a HUGE undertaking in Alaska's backcountry - boggy ground, streams, wilderness. The area our cabin is in doesn't have "riding trails". It's wilderness. The idea is that if you can afford to use anything over 1500 to transport your game, then you have enough money and don't need to hunt. Still stupid thinking. We hire a bush plane to fly us in and out of our cabin for $400 and usually have a friend along who shares the cost. So it costs us $about $350 with the tip for the pilot. 4-wheelers cost $5000 easy. I can't afford to buy two 4-wheelers but I can afford to hire a plane once a year. This situation really bothers me. I have been living off of moose and caribou my entire life and Fish and Game rules won't let me fly my game out. When we had to start buying commercial beef, I got nauseated everytime I smelled or ate it. Ground beef especially has a bad smell to it, like a barnyard. Yuck.

Enough of that. I am looking forward to the cabin! I can't wait to get there!

Monday, August 04, 2008

Not much weekend riding, we are ripping out our kitchen and living room to remodel so all free time is going towards this project. I haven't yet figured out how to survive without a kitchen. I guess I will be washing dishes in the bathroom sink and cooking on the BBQ grill and microwave. Anticipating living this way for 2 fun filled months. oh yeah...

I continue to ride to work, it's really nice to have a smooth, clean path to ride on. And it continues to be cold and rainy. I'm wet just as often as dry and still continue to wear my helmet liner and wool jersey, full leggings, jacket and gloves.

My daugher and her husband went fishing down towards Kenai and were joined by this little grizzly bear. It is pretty small, makes me wonder if it is big enough to survive the winter on it's own.